Resurrection Life Church closes on purchase of 420 W. Main St.

Resurrection Life Church Pastor John Prominski and wife Lisa Prominski gathered Monday at Sun Title in Ionia to close on the 420 W. Main St. property.

The former owner, Joseph Sawtell Jr., signed the paperwork and shipped it from North Carolina, Prominski said. The sale was official Wednesday afternoon.

Resurrection Life Church now owns five buildings near downtown Ionia, including the two used by the church now for services and administrative functions at 418 and 420 W. Main St., the former NAPA building on West Washington Street, 426 W. Main St. and now 420 W. Main St., which was formerly housed Main Street Bar.

The plan is to level the NAPA building and make it level with the city parking lot cornering Washington and Steele streets, Prominski said. In addition, the church plans to remove the back half of the 418 W. Main St. and 420 W. Main St. buildings.

“The back half of the buildings are in bad shape and are unusable. We are going to keep the front half and restore it. We’re going to blend old with new. We want to keep the original brick and flooring and wood, and keep it as original as possible,” Prominski said.

The church plans to construct a 500-person sanctuary on the site, which will afford them greater opportunities as a religious entity. Prominski anticipates hosting weddings, funerals, receptions and Christian music concerts at the church after the new facility is constructed.

“It’s going to be a beautiful blend of old and new. It will be an old, renovated facility because we are going to restore what we can. I believe that’s what God does with us. He restores and adds on an even greater purpose,” said Prominski.

With a more expansive church property, Prominski hopes that Resurrection Life Church will be able to draw more people to their facility and give back more to the community.

“We plan on breaking ground in early fall. We hope that the community grasps what we’re doing with the buildings. We’re not throwing them away. We’re restoring them for a use not clearly seen before by everybody,” Prominski said.

Prominski said he had been contacted by Sawtell about keeping the bar’s liquor license, and after deliberation, he and fellow church members decided against keeping the license.

“We didn’t know what to do with it, and we found out that if you purchase the liquor license, your name is always on it. We didn’t feel good about having the Resurrection Life name on there forever. We think that there is a greater calling for the area outside of that,” Prominski said.

Prominski believes the Main Street Bar liquor license went into escrow and has since been purchased by a separate entity.